1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a battery holder for holding and mounting a battery to for example a circuit board, and more particular to a battery holder having improved conductive contacts for both electrically engaging and reliably retaining the battery in place when the battery is inserted into the battery holder.
2. Description of Prior Art
Battery holders have been employed for holding various forms of batteries, such as back up batteries for real time clocks in desk top computers. These batteries are typically 1/2 AA batteries and the battery holder is installed on the main or other circuit boards of the computer by terminal tails which are inserted into the circuit boards and soldered to the appropriate electrical circuit of the boards.
Such 1/2 AA battery holders are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,211,579, 5,395,263, 6,124,056, 5,827,619. Generally, a 1/2 AA battery has a cylindrical body having a first flat end surface, serving as a negative terminal, and a second end surface from which a protrusion concentrically projects, serving as a positive terminal. The battery holder is equipped with positive and negative contacts that electrically and respectively engage with positive and negative terminals of the battery for routing the electrical current from the battery to a power-consuming device to which the contacts of the battery holder are connected. Batteries of this type are sometimes adopted as backup power supply in a computer system. In that case, the positive and negative contacts of the battery holder are electrically connected to a main circuit board of the computer system.
However, the battery holder disclosed in each of the above mentioned U.S. patents is not provided with an effective means to retain the battery in place. Thus, the battery may be moved out of the holder or deviated from its original position during transportation or under a vibrating environment, thereby adversely affecting the electrical connection between the terminals of the battery and corresponding contacts of the battery holder. Hence, an improved battery holder is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a battery holder equipped with a conductive contact which can effectively retain the battery in place when the battery is inserted into the battery holder;
A second object of the present invention is to provide a battery holder equipped with a conductive contact which has a low manufacturing cost and is simple in assembling.
A battery holder in accordance with the present invention is adapted to retain a battery having opposite first and second end faces, the first end face forming a first electrical terminal of the battery, a reduced projection extending from the second end face to form a second electrical terminal of the battery. The battery holder comprises an insulative housing and a pair of first and second conductive contacts fastened to opposite ends of the housing. The housing has two opposite side walls and two opposite first and second end blocks connected with the side walls to cooperatively define a receiving space for receiving a battery. The fist and second conductive contacts are respectively engaged with the first and second end blocks of the housing, and each forms a base section, a spring arm extending from one end of the base section for electrically connecting with one of the first and second electrical terminals of the battery when the battery is inserted in the receiving space, and a soldering tail extending from another end of the base section for soldering to a circuit board. Furthermore, one of the first and second conductive contacts forms a pair of clip members extending from opposite lateral sides of the base section for conductively abutting against an outer surface of the battery when the battery is disposed in the receiving space, thereby preventing the battery from moving or offsetting under variation situations.